Nancy Drew 2007 Movie Producer Jerry Weintraub’s Personal Signed Script! I just acquired this piece
of Nancy Drew history and am thrilled to add it to my collection and have a
wonderful archive for it in Toledo Public Library to preserve it and make it
available to scholars, fans and researchers! Click on images in this blog for larger views.
As the Nancy Drew Consultant for the 2007 Nancy Drew Emma Roberts film, not only did I have a great experience getting to consult on the film, but I also had a lot of fun collecting ephemera related to the film during the promotion of it and in years since. I probably have the largest collection of memorabilia from this film including signed and cast items and I still seek out a few things I missed getting. Most of my items are now in Toledo at the Toledo Public Library downtown branch in the second-floor children’s wing which houses my Jennifer Fisher Nancy Drew Collection. There’s a drawer that pulls out in the back of the room which has some items from the collection. I have a board for the 2007movie on Pinterest too which shows you what I have collected. The board has 81 items added to it though it needs updating.
For those of you who didn’t know, I worked with director Andrew Fleming who was revising the script written by Tiffany Paulsen and so most of my consulting was advising on things in the script, pointing out things in the classic books that he was a fan of, making suggestions like saving George from being called “Georgie” and other things. I did some consulting for the legal department regarding what was in the script and the books they held rights to – books 1-22 - and making sure there were not major elements in other books past those, etc. I also lent every book in my collection of volumes 1-22 in classic, book club edition, foreign edition and library edition – including my signed Old Clock which at the time just had a repro dust jacket, though I’ve since upgraded to a real first printing dust jacket. They liked all of my Russell H. Tandy illustrated series books and Mildred Wirt Benson’s other books and series outside Nancy Drew because of all the colorful dust jacket spines, so they wanted those too. If you play the intro sequence to the movie, you’ll see them zoom in on a ton of books, most of those came from my collection.
I was able to visit the set when filming was going on at the Warner Brothers lot and it was really cool to see the various rooms in the house they were staying at in the film including the attic, the secret passageway and the shelves of books. Outside they had the blue Nash convertible she drove in the film. I got to meet Emma Roberts, Tate Donovan who played Carson Drew and also Jeffrey Kurland who did the costumes for the film. He loved that I sat so Nancyish with my heels crossed to the side and brought out the big costume book of all the costumes with Polaroids and pictures inside for each character and so I got to look through that. Andy gave me a set tour and we discussed the filming and stuff I was consulting on. I got to see them film lines for some of the scenes in the house. It was really fun.
In 2007 when the movie premiered, I attended the premier at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which was lots of fun and I also went to the after party at Grauman’s Magic Castle. Then shortly thereafter we had our Nancy Drew Sleuths 2007 Convention in Pasadena and everyone attending got to go see the film in a local movie theater and we had a tour of Warner Bros. Studio. Attendees got special copies of the newspaper prop from the film which was so neat for the fans to receive. There was also a lot of swag from the premier and after party that I acquired for the collection.
The producer of the film, Jeffrey Weintraub, was the one who through his production company hired me to consult on the film. He passed away in July of 2015 and his wife Jane in 2025. Their estate had a lot of memorabilia from various films and hobbies Jerry was into and some of it was auctioned off May 5-6, 2026 via Julien’s Auctions. I had received a Google News alert about the auction, it mentioning that he had worked on various films including Nancy Drew so that keyword hit. But then I thought to myself, I wonder if he had any Nancy Drew items from the filming that they are auctioning like cast/crew items maybe that I’d missed out on getting. So, I went to the auction website and searched and there were several things in the auction from the film – not very many though. The high-ticket items were a cast signed script of Jerry’s in a very nice leather “Nancy Drew” portfolio, his personal copy. And a sleuth kit prop from the movie that Nancy carried around when she was sleuthing. Also combined with other films in a lot of several items were the director’s chairback which I already had in my collection and a clapboard. There was a framed poster. A production script and some props. And some awards for various films including two Camie awards for the Nancy Drew film.
Of course I was planning to bid, the signed script and the sleuth kit were my two objectives. I have included screenshots of final prices on the items auctioned below. I registered and kept an eye on the online bidding. On the first day of the auction when the Nancy Drew items would be auctioned off, I checked the progress and had to take my dad to an appointment. We made it to his appointment 10 minutes early and if you can believe it, that’s when the lots for the Nancy Drew items came up – perfect timing! I was so nervous, and as expected, the bidding on the sleuth kit went extremely high – it sold for over 4K with buyer’s premium. I knew it was likely a lost cause, so I had reasoned it out ahead of time that even though that sleuth kit was really cool, the personal script of Jerry’s with some cast and crew signings was really the big item of the auction and I wanted to bring that home to the rest of my 2007 collection and eventually it will reside in Toledo with the rest of my collection and 2007 movie items. I began bidding as the time was running out – there was a phone bidder I believe that went neck and neck with me on it, but my bid finally won out. If I bid against anyone I know, that’s always awkward, but I wouldn’t have known and this item will be preserved for history and have a great home in Toledo with the collection and archive there soon.
This past week the script arrived, and I was on pins and needles, following the UPS delivery around as you
can track the location and the driver was going all over the neighborhood in
some odd fashion all around our house and back and forth but finally arrived and
I had to sign for it. I did an unboxing video that I’ll put up at my Nancy Drew Expert Instagram. I look at it as holding a piece
of Nancy Drew history and one that I was a part of which makes this item very
special. I’m not sure if anyone in our collecting community got the expensive
sleuth kit, but I’d love to hear about it if you did!
If not or just someone in general purchased it, the Toledo Public Library which houses my Jennifer Fisher Nancy Drew Collection – the largest and most varied collection of Nancy Drew ephemera publicly on display – would love to have the sleuth kit someday via acquiring it through private sale or donation. So, if the winner or estate of this item, ever comes across this blog down the road who Is wanting to part with it themselves or through an estate, please consider at some point a sale or donation to the JFND Collection – you can contact me at nancydrewsleuth@aol.com or via the Toledo Public Library downtown branch to facilitate this. This goes for other items related to the film that one might want to sell or donate if we are missing them from the collection.
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